This is a somewhat “mix to taste” step. We use ISO images and encourage their use. The size of the OS volume will end-up being somewhere around 8GB of actual space-on-disk after this step, making 40GB sound like overkill. However, the OS volume will bloat-up to 18-20GB pretty quick after updates, roles and feature additions. Adding application(s) will quickly chew-up the rest.

Edit Settings… ->

Options -> Advanced -> General -> Uncheck “Enable logging”

Hardware -> CD/DVD Drive 1 ->

Click “Datastore ISO File”

Browse to Windows 2008 R2 ISO image

Check “Connect at power on”

Options -> Advanced -> Boot Options -> Force BIOS Setup

Check “The next time the virtual machine boots, force entry into the BIOS setup screen”

It is important that VMware Tools be installed next, if for no other reason than to make the rest of the process quicker and easier. The additional step of disabling “Shared Folders” is for ESX/vSphere environments where shared folders are not supported. Since this option is installed by default, it can/should be removed in vSphere installations.

VM -> Guest -> Install VMware Tools ->

Custom -> VMware Device Drivers -> Disable “Shared Folder” feature

Retstart

Complete Initial Configuration Tasks:

Once the initial installation is complete, we need to complete the 2008 R2 basic configuration. If you are working in an AD environment, this is not the time to join the template to the domain as GPO conflicts may hinder manual template defaults. We’ve chosen a minimal package installation based on our typical deployment profile. Some features/roles may differ in your organization’s template (mix to taste).

Set time zone -> Date and Time ->

Internet Time -> Change Settings… -> Set to local time source

Date and Time -> Change time zone… -> Set to local time zone

Provide computer name and domain -> Computer name ->

Enterprise Edition: W2K8R2ENT-TMPL

Standard Edition: W2K8R2STD-TMPL

Foundation Edition: W2K8R2FND-TMPL

Note: Don’t join to a domain just yet…

Restart Later

Configure Networking

Disable QoS Packet Scheduler

Enable automatic updating and feedback

Manually configure settings

Windows automatic updating -> Change Setting… ->

Important updates -> “check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them”

Recommended updates -> Check “Give me recommended updates the same way I receive important updates”

Who can install updates -> Uncheck “Allow all users to install updates on this computer”

Modify and Silence Server Manager

(Optional) Parts of this step may violate your local security policies, however, it’s more than likely that a GPO will ultimately override this configuration. We find it useful to have this disabled for “general purpose” templates – especially in a testing/lab environment where the security measures will be defeated as a matter of practice.

Security Information -> Configure IE ESC

Select Administrators Off

Select Users Off

Select “Do not show me this console at logon” and close

Modify Taskbar Properties

Making the taskbar usable for your organization is another matter of taste. We like smaller icons and maximizing desktop utility. We also hate being nagged by the notification area…

Right-click Taskbar -> Taskbar and Start Menu Properties ->

Taskbar -> Check “Use small icons”

Taskbar -> Customize… ->

Set all icons to “Only show notifications”

Click “Turn system icons on or off”

Turn off “Volume”

Start Menu -> Customize…

Uncheck “Use large icons”

Modify default settings in Control Panel

Some Control Panel changes will help “optimize” the performance of the VM by disabling unnecessary features like screen saver and power management. We like to see our corporate logo on server desktops (regardless of performance implications) so now’s the time to make that change as well.

Disable Swap File

Disabling swap will allow the defragment step to be more efficient and will disable VMware’s advanced memory management functions. This is only temporary and we’ll be enabling swap right before committing the VM to template.

Computer Properties -> Visual Effects -> Adjust for best performance

Computer Properties -> Advanced System Settings ->

System Properties -> Advanced -> Performance -> Settings… ->

Performance Options -> Advanced -> Change…

Uncheck “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives”

Select “No paging file”

Click “Set” to disable swap file

Remove hibernation file and set boot timeout

It has been pointed out that the hibernation and timeout settings will get re-enabled by the sysprep operation. Removing the hibernation files will help in defragment now. We’ll reinforce these steps in the customization wizard later.

cmd: powercfg -h off

cmd: bcdedit /timeout 5

Disable indexing on C:

Indexing the OS disk can suck performance and increase disk I/O unnecessarily. Chances are, this template (when cloned) will be heavily cached on your disk array so indexing in the OS will not likely benefit the template. We prefer to disable this feature as a matter of practice.

C: -> Properties -> General ->

Uncheck “Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties”

Apply -> Apply changes to C:\ only (or files and folders, to taste)

Housekeeping

Time to clean-up and prepare for a streamlined template. The first step is intended to aid the copying of “administrator defaults” to “user defaults.” If this does not apply, just defragment.

Copy Administrator settings to “Default” user

The “formal” way of handling this step requires a third-party utility. We’re giving credit to Jason Samuel for consolidating other bloggers methods because he was the first to point out the importance of the “unattend.xml” file and it really saved us some time. His blog post also includes a link to an example “unattend.xml” file that can be modified for your specific use, as we have.

Convert VM Template to Clone

Use the VMware Customization Wizard to create a re-usable script for cloning the template. Now’s a good time to test that your template will create a usable clone. If it fails, go check the “red letter” items and make sure your setup is correct. The following hints will help improve your results.

Remember that the ISO is still mounted by default. Once VM’s are deployed from the template, it should be removed after the customization process is complete and additional roles/features are added.

That’s the process we have working at SOLORI. It’s not rocket science, but if you miss an important step you’re likely to be visited by an error in “pass [specialize]” that will have you starting over. Note: this also happens when your AD credentials are bad, your license key is incorrect (version/edition mismatch, typo, etc.) or other nondescript issues – too bad the error code is unhelpful…

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